The International Liaison Office for President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti Update, 8
November 1995. Eight years after 2,000 to 4,500 tons of
toxic ash from a Philadelphia municipal incinerator were
dumped in Gonaives, the U.S. government still refuses to
remove the material from Haiti.

From the International Liaison Office for President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, 17 November 1995. Haiti was once
among the richest and most productive colonies of the
continent. Today, however, Haiti must organize an
intensive campaign to overcome the devastation and
deforestation caused by centuries of exploitation and
neglect.

By Elizabeth Bryant, Earth Times News Service, 8 July
1996. Increasingly, environmentalists are looking at
grassroots conservation, rather than government-sponsored
efforts, as the key to Haiti's future. They
criticize the Haitian government and the international
community for not doing enough, and for pegging
environmental issues to political self interest.

By Peter Montague, Rachel's Environment &
Health Weekly, 23 April 1998. The City of Philadelphia is
refusing to spend $200,000 or 0.008% of its annual budget
to clean up 8 million pounds of the city's toxic
incinerator ash that was dumped on a beach in Haiti 10
years ago.

Reuters, 15 December 1998. Haiti has the worst case of
deforestation in the Western Hemisphere because of
charcoal's place as the primary fuel. The once-lush
country is becoming the Western Hemisphere's first
desert. Parts of the country will never be able to
recover; loss of Haiti's topsoil.

Haiti Report, 9 September 2002, prepared by Haiti
Reborn/Quixote Center (excerpts). The Support Group for
Refugees and the Repatriated (GARR) and the Platform to
Advocate an Alternative Development (PAPDA) question the
government's commitment to sustainable development
given that it will concret the green spaces on the
Maribahoux agricultural plain to set up a free zone for
textile production.

By Emmanuel W. Vedrine, 10 November 2002. The Haitian
peasants cross the border to the Dominican Republic; so do
the birds because of deforestation, no vegetation, and
poor agriculture. Part of the ecological problem is that
peasants cut down trees to make charcoal (for cash)
because of the absence of other cash-crops.

Associated Press, New York Times, 23 March
2003. Once blanketed by lush forests, Haiti is now nearly
90 percent deforested. Competing against a demand that has
far exceeded supply, the Caribbean nation loses more than
30 million trees a year to provide wood, fuel and work to
a desperate population.

By Marika Lynch, The Miami Herald, Thu 8 May
2003. In Haiti, where just a fifth of the households have
running water—a small percentage even for developing
countries—getting clean water is a daily
struggle. It's also increasingly costly.

By Carol J. Williams, Los Angeles Times, 17
November 2003. Misguided irrigation and drainage practices
in Haiti's highlands, unregulated construction on
hillsides and excessive cutting of endangered forests for
fuel wood have combined to expose the area around
Port-au-Prince to erosion that threatens to wipe out whole
neighborhoods, rich and poor alike.